Latest Books

No longer confined to medical devices, medical software has become a pervasive technology giving healthcare operators access to clinical information stored in electronic health records and clinical decision support systems, supporting robot-assisted telesurgery, and providing the technology behind ambient assisted living. These systems and software must be designed, built and maintained according to strict regulations and standards to ensure that they are safe, reliable and secure. Engineering High Quality Medical Software illustrates how to exploit techniques, methodologies, development processes and existing standards to realize high-confidence medical software. After an introductory survey of the topic the book covers global regulations and standards (including EU MDD 93/42/EEC, FDA Title 21 of US CFR, ISO 13485, ISO 14971, IEC 52304, IEEE 1012 and ISO/IEC 29119), verification and validation techniques and techniques, and methodologies and engineering tasks for the development, configuration and maintenance of medical software.

Ultrasound imaging technology has experienced a dramatic change in the last 30 years. Because of its non-invasive nature and continuing improvements in image quality, ultrasound imaging is progressively achieving an important role in the assessment and characterization of cardiovascular imaging. Speckle is inherent in ultrasound imaging giving rise to a granular appearance instead of homogeneous, flat shades of gray, as is visible and as such, speckle can severely compromise interpretation of ultrasound images, particularly in discrimination of small structures. On the other hand, speckle can be used in the detection of time varying phenomena, or tracking tissue motion. The objective of this book is to provide a reference edited volume covering the whole spectrum of speckle phenomena, theoretical background and modelling, algorithms and selected applications in cardiovascular ultrasound imaging and video processing and analysis. The book is organized under the following four parts, Part I: Introduction to Speckle Noise; Part II: Speckle Filtering; Part III: Speckle Tracking; Part IV: Selected Applications in Cardiovascular Imaging.

High Voltage Power Network Construction examines the key requirements, considerations, complexities and constraints relevant to the task of high voltage power network construction - from design, finance, contracts and project management to installation and commissioning - with the aim of providing an overview of the holistic end to end construction task in a single volume. It specifically targets the 400, 275,132 and 33 kV networks, presenting best and common practice. The book is organised around the implementation of three complementary deliverables: a technical solution that results in the required power system performance characteristics; appropriate quality management arrangements; and the set of competencies all duty holders should demonstrate. Although written primarily from a UK electrical power industry perspective, the book recognises that much is already harmonised with the rest of Europe and increasingly so the rest of the world. This comprehensive reference is a must-read for engineers and researchers with high voltage network construction related responsibilities, especially those engineers that are newly qualified, as well as further reading for advanced students in related subjects.

Tactical Persistent Surveillance Radar with Applications introduces technologists to the essential elements of persistent surveillance of tactical targets from both a hardware and software point of view, using simple Mathcad, Excel and Basic examples with real data. It is based on the type of surveillance done by drones like Scan Eagle, Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk, and manned aircraft like U-2, ASTOR, and JSTARS as well as spacecraft. The general topic is cellphone and datalink intercept, ground moving target radar, synthetic aperture radar, navigation, tracking, electronic scanning and cueing electro-optical sensors for activity based surveillance. Examples are taken from a wide range of technologies and techniques including passive detection, radar detection, antenna monopulse, active electronic scanned antennas (AESA), moving target tracking (MTT), motion compensation, tactical target spectral characteristics, moving target detection (MTI), space time adaptive processing (STAP), synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, change detection (CCD), and synthetic monopulse. Over 120 example applications programs are included in the appendices and as downloads as well as over 100 SAR and GMTI raw IQ data files. These allow the curious to experiment with their own parameters and notions to achieve a greater understanding of the underlying behaviors. Based on the author's 55-year experience in engineering design, leadership, teaching and consulting, this book is an essential text for researchers, advanced students and technologists working in radar and related fields in computing and aerospace system design.

Road pricing is increasingly being implemented around the world to combat congestion, curb carbon and other polluting emissions, compensate for falling revenues from fuel duty, improve the efficiency of the existing transport infrastructure, and fund new transport projects. Road Pricing outlines some of the economic theory behind these schemes, indicates the different kinds of road charging schemes that are possible, describes the electronic technology being used, shows that it is available and already in operational use in many countries, addresses how public acceptability can be achieved, and demonstrates that people will accept road pricing if they understand the reasons for using it, and above all, if they have experienced it in use and understand how it will affect them personally. There are very few engineering-oriented books in this field, or books aimed at transport planners. This book aims to fill that gap - informing engineers and planners how to prepare for and implement road pricing schemes, which technologies to use, and which technologies are already in use successfully throughout the world. The book also aims to show politicians and policy advisors what has been successfully achieved and what is possible now and in the immediate future.

The inverted pendulum is a classic problem in dynamics and control theory and is widely used as a benchmark for testing control algorithms. It is also an area of active study, with many new innovations and applications - for example, the problem is solved in the technology of the Segway, a self-balancing transportation device. This book provides an overall picture of historical and current trends and the developments in nonlinear control theory, based on the simple structure and rich nonlinear model of the inverted pendulum. After an introduction to the system and open/current problems, the book covers the topic in four parts: applications of robust state estimation and control to pendulum-cart systems; controllers for under-actuated mechanical systems; nonlinear controllers for mobile inverted pendulum systems; and robust controllers based observers via Takagi-Sugeno or linear approaches. With contributions from international researchers in the field, The Inverted Pendulum in Control Theory and Robotics is essential reading for researchers, scientists, engineers and students in the field of control theory, robotics and nonlinear systems

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. The tags contain electronically stored information. RFIDs have been widely used in countless applications such as object tracking, 3D positioning, indoor localization, supply chain management, automotive, inventory control, anti-theft, anti-counterfeit, and access control. The Internet of Things (IoT) promises a huge growth in RFID technology and usage. This book covers the topic of RFID protocol design, optimization, and security. RFID systems allow for a much easier and error free inventory management and tracking, but the probabilistic nature of RFID protocols makes the design and optimization complex and challenging. Most existing commercial RFID systems are not well designed. In this book, the authors aim to demystify complicated RFID protocols and explain in depth the principles, techniques, and practices in designing and optimizing them.

The interplay of privacy, security and user-determination is an important consideration in the roll-out of biometric technologies. It brings into play requirements such as privacy of biometric data in systems, communication and databases, soft biometric profiling, biometric recognition of persons across distributed systems and in nomadic scenarios, and the convergence between user convenience, usability and authentication reliability. User-Centric Privacy and Security in Biometrics explores how developments in biometrics will address security and privacy aspects. The book surveys and evaluates how biometric techniques can enhance and increase the reliability of security strategies in a variety of applications. This includes privacy-preserving state-of-the-art works and future directions in the view of biometrics as part of broader security concepts. The fundamental emphasis is on privacy within and for biometrics, particularly for the protection of biometric data, informed consent of data usage, transparency on biometric data, and big data fraud prevention.